E 

112 
1337 


BANCROFT    LIBRARY 


S  0, 


MONOGRAPH 


BY 


AMES  D.  BUTLER,  LL.D. 


MADISON,  WIS.,  1883. 


-77  / 


POBTRAITS  OF  COLUMBUS. 


MONOGRAPH 


BY 


JAMES  D    BUTLER,  LL.D 


MADISON,  WIS.,  1883. 


,6 


x 


[From  the  Collections  of  the  State  Historical  Society,  1882.] 

Bancroft  Library  PORTRAITS  OF  COLUMBUS. 


BY  PROF.  JAMES  D.  BUTLER,  LL.  D. 

Governor  Fairchild : 1 

In  behalf  of  the  Historical  Society,  I  have  the  honor  —  and  it 
is  a  very  pleasant  duty  —  to  thank  you  for  your  generous  gift. 
Nothing  you  could  bring  us  from  the  ancient  kingdom  where  you 
have  so  ably  represented  our  country,  could  be  more  acceptable 
to  us.  It  is  a  present  exactly  in  keeping  with  our  endeavors  dur 
ing  a  whole  generation.  One  by  one  have  we  hung  up  in  our 
Picture  Gallery  the  likenesses  of  our  State  pioneers,  as  well  as  of 
others  famous  each  after  his  own  fashion  in  our  annals.  But  the 
grand  link  thus  far  lacking  in  the  chain  of  our  pictorial  history, 
you  were  among  the  first  to  observe  to  be  missing,  and  you  have 
made  haste  to  supply  that  missing  link. 

In  this  labor  of  love  you  have  followed  the  footsteps  of  an 
illustrious  predecessor.  When  Jefferson  was  the  American  min 
ister  in  Paris,  about  1784,  he  engaged  an  artist  to  take  the  best 
copy  possible  of  what  passed  for  the  most  authentic  Columbian 
likeness  in  existence, —  the  Medici  portrait  in  Florence 2 —  and  the 
original,  as  most  critics  think,  of  the  present  you  bring  us  to-day. 
This  painting  was  with  Jefferson  during  his  Presidency,  and  he 
writes  about  it  as  one  of  his  chief  jewels  at  Monticello  in  1814 
In  his  drawing  room  there,  it  hung  the  second  among  four  por 
traits  on  the  left  as  one  entered.  If  Virginia  had  had  any  Histor 
ical  Society  in  his  time,8  he  must  have  delighted  to  enshrine  his 

1  Hon.  Lucius  Fairchild,  while  United  States  Minister  at  Madrid,  admiring 
the  fine  Yanez  portrait  of  Columbus,  in  the  Spanish  National  Library,  closely 
resembling    the  famous    likeness    in  the  Florentine  Gallery,  he   at   once 
caused  a  copy  to  be  made  by  the  eminent  artist,  M.  Hernandez,  of  that  city, 
for  the  special  purpose  of  adding  it  to  the  art  collection  of  our  Historical 
Society.    It  was  a  happy  thought,  promptly  and  gracefully  carried  into  exe 
cution.  L.  C.  D. 

2  Jefferson's  Works,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  343, 375.  Domestic  Life,  Sarah  N.  Randolph. 
•  The  Virginia  Historical  Society  was  not  founded  until  five  years  after 

Jefferson's  death,  or  in  1831. 


4  WISCONSIN  STATE  HISTOEICAL  SOCIETY. 

pictorial  memorial  within  its  walls,  deeming  it  as  he  wrote,  "  a 
matter  even  of  public  concern  that  our  country  should  not  be 
without  it." 

What  has  become  of  this  Jeffersonian  relic,  is  a  question  we 
naturally  ask.  I  have  corresponded  regarding  it  with  Lossing, 
who  has  illustrated  so  many  of  our  worthies,  and  with  Parton, 
the  latest  biographer  of  Jefferson.  Neither  of  them  could  give 
me  any  inkling  of  its  fate.  I  next  wrote  to  Miss  Sarah  N.  Ran- 
dolph,  a  great  grand-daughter  of  Jefferson,  and  the  author  of  a 
volume  on  his  Domestic  Life.  In  her  answer  were  these  words  : 

"The  Columbus  and  other  portraits  having  been  reserved  at 
the  sale  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  effects,  were  sent  to  Boston,  where  it 
was  supposed,  there  would  be  a  better  chance  of  selling  them  to 
advantage.  They  were  intrusted  to  Mr.  Coolidge,  who  married 
my  aunt.  They  are  both  now  dead,  and  I  wrote  to  their  daughter, 
telling  her  of  your  desire  to  know  about  the  Columbus.  She 
writes  that  she  knows  nothing  of  it,  and  would  not  know  that 
such  a  picture  had  been  at  Monticello,  but  for  the  fact  that  it  is 
mentioned  in  my  book."  "I  have  often,"  Miss  Randolph  contin 
ues,  wished  to  trace  this  picture  up  ;  but  suppose  there  is  now  no 
hope  of  doing  so.  My  uncle  has  been  dead  only  three  years,  and 
a  single  word  from  him  would  have  told  all." 

Thus  my  research  seemed  in  vain.  Notwithstanding  it  has 
been  my  fortune  to  discover  the  lost  likeness ;  if  not  America, 
at  least  its  discoverer.  The  word  Boston  in  Miss  Randolph's  let 
ter  put  me  on  the  track.  Had  I  been  in  that  city  I  would  have 
gone  at  once  to  the  building  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Soci 
ety  assured  that  all  historic  gems  must  gravitate  thither.  But  I 
was  a  thousand  miles  away,  and  so  I  scrutinized  their  publica 
tions.  In  their  Collections  (3rd  series,  Yol.  VII.,  p.  285),  I  came 
to  a  notice  of  a  portrait  of  Columbus,  presented  by  Israel  Thorn- 
dike,1  and  in  their  Proceedings  (Vol.  II.,  pp.  23,  25),  I  observed 

1  To  the  same  merchant  prince  of  Boston,  Harvard  owes  the  gift  of  a  treas 
ure,  which  the  German  Professor,  Ebeling,  had  been  fifty  years  in  collecting, 
and  which,  at  his  death,  was  the  finest  in  existence,  namely,  nearly  four 
thousand  volumes  of  books  relative  to  America,  and  almost  ten  thousand 
maps,  charts  and  views. 


PORTRAITS  OF  COLUMBUS.  5 

that  the  donor,  in  his  letter  of  presentation  (Nov.  26,  1835),  de 
scribed  the  Columbian  portrait  as  "  a  copy  from  an  original  in  the 
Gallery  of  Medicis  (sic),  at  Florence,  for  Thomas  Jefferson."- 

It  was  a  pleasure  to  ascertain  that  Jefferson's  favorite  hangs 
just  where  he  would  have  it  —  in  the  hall  of  that  Society  which 
has  done  most  to  elucidate  the  annals  of  the  country  over  which 
Jefferson  presided,  and  of  the  Continent  which  Columbus  revealed. 

In  1814,  Mr.  Delaplaioe,  father  of  our  townsman,  was  publish 
ing  in  Philadelpia  his  "Repository  of  Distinguished  Americans." 
He  made  strenuous  efforts  to  obtain  for  his  frontispiece  a  drawing 
from  the  Jeffersonian  portrait.  Failing  in  this  endeavor,  he  was 
forced  to  have  recourse  to  a  painting  by  Macella,  copied  from  some 
fancy  portrait,1  cased  in  plate  armor,  and  lettuce  ruffs,  with  fea 
tures  as  divergent  as  the  costume  from  the  genuine  type. 

Investigations  of  every  sort  regarding  Columbus  are  now 
seasoned  by  special  seasonableness,  inasmuch  as  we  have  already 
entered  the  last  decade  before  the  fourth  centennial  anniversary 
of  the  great  discovery, —  an  era  that  will  be  celebrated  from  pole 
to  pole. 

In  tracing  the  Jeffersonian  portrait  of  Columbus,  I  first  be 
came  aware  that  no  monograph  on  the  general  subject  of  Colum 
bian  portraits  was  discoverable  in  English,  and  scarcely  in  any 
language.  The  only  article  I  found  was  a  gossipy  letter  in  a 
New  York  daily  paper  from  Irving  in  his  old  age,  which  showed 
that  he  had  never  given  the  subject  more  than  superficial  atten 
tion.  In  Poole's  corpulent  Index  to  seven  thousand  volumes  of 
periodicals,  you  can  detect  no  single  paper  concerning  portraits  of 
Columbus.  My  treatment  of  the  theme  then  is  tilling  a  virgin 
field. 

My  investigation  has  brought  me  into  correspondence  with  all 
the  world.  Among  those  to  whom  I  owe  special  thanks  are  Gen 
eral  B.  Alvord,  U.  S.  A.,  of  Washington  ;  Professor  Norton,  of 
Harvard  University;  Mary  Cowden  Clarke;  the  United  States 
ministers  or  consuls  in  Mexico,  Lisbon  and  Genoa;  Chief  Justice 
Daly,  of  New  York;  H.  A.  Homes,  W.  C.  Todd,  Bela  Hubbard, 

1  Larousse  —  "  Purely  fanciful."    Jefferson's  Work's,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  343,  375. 


6  WISCONSIN  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

E.  M.  Barton,  Miss  Sarah  N.  Randolph,  A.  H.  Hoyt,  Mellen 
Chamberlain,  William  H.  Wyman,  George  H.  Moore,  John 
Ward  Dean,  John  R  Bartlett,  Ralph  U.  James,  and  the  Duke  of 
Veragua  himself. 

The  oldest  Columbian  portrait  of  which  I  discover  any  trace 
in  the  United  States,  now  hangs  in  the  New  York  Senate  Cham 
ber  at  Albany.  .It  was  presented  to  the  State  in  1784,  by  Mrs. 
Maria  Farmer,  a  grand-daughter  of  Jacob  Leisler,  Governor  of 
New  York,  in  1689.  According  to  her  statement  the  painting 
had  been  in  her  family  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years.  It  may 
then  have  been  brought  from  Europe  more  than  two  centuries 
ago.  In  one  corner  it  bears  the  inscription,  uanno  [1592]  or 
1492,  Act  23."  This  legend  may  indicate  the  year  in  which  the 
copy  was  taken,  and  the  age  of  the  copyist.1  This  likeness  is  of 
a  younger  man  than  we  can  believe  Columbus  to  have  been  when 
his  first  portrait  was  painted,  and  it  is  not  now  generally  deemed 
authentic. 

Your  gift  is  small  to  the  eye,  but  it  is  great  to  the  mind.  I  for 
one  could  not  appreciate  its  value  till  after  considerable  research.2 

1  Catalogue  N.  Y.  State  Library,  p.  45.  Magazine  of  Amer.  History  vol. 
V,  p.  446. 

8  During  my  investigation,  engravings  of  Columbian.portraits  have  come 
to  my  knowledge  in  great  numbers.  The  oldest  of  all  painted  likenesses, 
the  Florentine  Uffizi,  dating  from  1568,  or  probably  from  an  earlier  year.  A 
photograph  of  this  has  been  ordered  from  Florence.  Among  those  owned 
by  the  State  Historical  Society  are  the  following: 

1.  The  Giovian  wood  cut,  dating  from  1575  or  '78. 

2.  The  Yanez  portrait  from  Madrid,  unsecured. 

3.  The  same,  scoured. 

4.  The  De  Bry  likeness,  Frankfort,  1595. 

5.  The  Capriolo  likeness,  Rome,  1596. 

6.  The  Naples  likeness,  by  Parmigiano. 

7.  The  Munoz  likeness. 

8.  The  bust  in  Genoa. 

9.  The  statue  in  Genoa. 

10.  The  Bryant  and  Gay  likeness  from  an  old  map. 

11.  The  Harper  Magazine  likeness. 

12.  The  Bibliotheque  National,  p.  150,  Goodrich. 

13.  The  Albany  likeness. 

14.  The  Herrera,  p.  219,  Goodrich. 

15.  The  Venetian  Mosaic. 

16.  A  German  likeness,  p.  382,  Goodrich. 

17.  The  Bernardo  likeness. 

18.  Columbus  as  St.  Christopher,  p.  153,  Goodrich. 

19.  The  Jeftersonian  Columbus  in  Boston,  heliotype. 

20.  The  Crispin  de  Pas.,  photograph. 


PORTBAJTS  OP  COLUMBUS.  7 

The  so-called  likenesses  of  Columbus  are  mostly  fancy  sketches. 
As  men  have  made  to  themselves  gods,  each  after  his  own 
national  image,  so  have  they  portrayed  their  heroes,  and  not  least 
our  heroic  discoverer.  The  great  navigator  as  represented  at 
Madrid,  in  the  palace  of  the  Duke  of  Berwick- Alba,  is  seated  on 
a  throne,  and  arrayed  in  high  colored  silks  and  embroidery,  while 
his  features  are  no  more  true  to  nature  than  his  dress.  This 
painting  is  said  to  be  a  copy  from  a  likeness  in  Havana,  which 
has  often  been  sought  for  but  always  in  vain.1  It  is  the  original 
of  the  largest  known  Columbian  engraving  which  bears  this  in 
scription  :  "  The  original  was  painted  in  America  by  Yan  Loo." 
El  cuadro  original  fue  pintado  en  America  por  Van  Loo.  When 
was  Van  Loo  in  America  ?  The  gods,  one  would  think,  must  an 
nihilate  both  time  and  space  to  make  the  owner  of  such  a  sham 
happy.  Yet  a  copy  of  this  engraving  was  highly  prized  by  the 
late  Mr.  Lenox,  and  now  adorns  his  library  in  Central  Park. 
He  supposed  that  the  Duke  of  Alba  portrait  had  been  painted  in 
the  lifetime  of  Columbus.2 

In  the  Cuban  consistorial  hall  at  Havana,  Columbus  appears 
dressed  as  a  familar  of  the  inquisition.3  In  one  likeness  he  resem 
bles  an  effeminate  Narcissus ;  in  many  others  the  costume  and 
arrangement  of  hair  are  in  a  style  unknown  to  his  century,  while 
his  lineaments  are  treated  with  no  less  license  than  his  vestments. 
Seeing  Columbus  thus  transformed  —  or  rather  deformed —  we 
are  reminded  of  personal  caricatures  in  Punch,  of  Mark  Twain, 
asking  "Is  he  dead?"  or  of  a  heathen  idol  baptized  with  the 
name  of  a  saint,  so  that  what  was  carved  for  Jupiter  becomes  Jew 
Peter. 

More  than  one  canvas  passing  for  a  Columbian  portrait  is  a 
palimpsest ;  that  is,  it  shows  traces  of  a  former  name  having  been 
erased  in  order  that  the  word  Columbus  might  be  inscribed.  Pro 
ductions  betraying  such  an  alias  remind  us  of  a  dinner  scene  in 
Mark  Twain's  "  Tramp  Abroad."  An  American  complained  that 

1  Carderera,  p.  8. 

8  Cat.  of  Ticknor's  Spanish  Books  in  Boston  Public  Library,  p.  95.    Car- 
•derera,  p.  23. 
8 Magazine  of  Amer.  History,  Vol.  1,  p.  510. 


8  WISCONSIN  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

having  ordered  champagne,  he  had  been  served  with  vin  ordinaire. 
The  steward  took  the  bottle  —  saw  that  it  bore  the  words  vin 
ordinaire,  and  acknowledged  the  mistake.  He  then  called  a 
waiter  to  bring  a  champagne  label,  and  pasted  it  on  in  place  of 
the  words  objected  to,  saying,  "  You  now  have,  sir,  what  you 
ordered,  and  as  good  champagne  as  we  ever  furnish." 

About  thirty  years  ago,  Judge  Ira  Barton,  a  member  of  the 
American  Antiquarian  Society,  in  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  see 
ing  in  the  picture  gallery  at  Naples  a  portrait  by  Parmigiano 
which  was  called  Columbus,  obtained  a  copy  of  it,  painted  by  an 
Italian  artist  named  Scardino,  and  gave  it  to  the  Society  for  hang 
ing  in  its  hall.  Bat  the  painter  was  only  three  years  old  at  the 
death  of  Columbus ;  and  so  even  in  the  view  of  its  donor  this 
painting  was  only  an  ideal  likeness.  In  truth,  it  is  not  so  much 
as  that.  According  to  Professor  C.  E.  Norton,  of  Cambridge,  "  it 
is  no  longer  held  by  any  competent  critic  to  be  an  authentic  like 
ness."  The  Spanish  painter  and  investigator,  Carderera,  goes  fur 
ther,  and  in  disproof  of  its  pretensions  discourses  as  follows  : 

"  We  now  come  to  notice  the  famous  portrait  which  hangs  in 
the  Eoyal  Museo  Borbonico  at  Naples,  attributed  to  the  elegant 
pencil  of  Parmigiano.  As  this  celebrated  painting  has  of  late 
misled  very  respectable  persons,  and  has  been  reproduced  in 
engravings  at  Naples,  as  well  as  in  France  and  England,1  it  seems 
necessary  to  subject  it  to  a  careful  analysis.  Bechi,  who  has  de 
scribed  this  beautiful  work,  confesses  that  the  eminent  artist  had 
to  paint  the  portrait  from  imagination.  M.  Jomard,  of  the  French 
National  Library,  is  of  the  same  opinion,  and  yet  advised  the 
Genoese  nobles  commissioned  to  raise  a  statue  of  the  great  man 
that  their  artists  should  inspire  themselves  at  this  notable  print 
ing.  We  must,  in  many  points,  differ  from  the  opinions  of  the 
two  distinguished  persons  we  have  just  mentioned.  Having 
carefully  examined  the  portrait  in  Naples,  we  have  come  to  doubt 
whether  the  Parmesan  artist  intended  it  to  be  a  likeness  of  Colum- 

1  This  Neapolitan  likeness  was  reproduced  as  the  frontispiece  in  one  of  the 
volumes  of  Prescott's  "Ferdinand  and  Isabella."  It  was  engraved  in  1882 
by  George  E.  Ferine,  expressly  for  the  American  EdecticMagazine.  It  was  an 
odd  blunder  to  make  a  misnomer  the  subject  of  SQ  fine  a  work  of  art. 


POETEAITS    OF    COLUMBUS.  9 

bus  at  all.  There  is  scarcely  any  point  of  resemblance  between 
the  authentic  [word  ?]  portraits  of  the  Admiral  which  so  clearly 
reveal  the  frank  manner,  and  a  certain  courtier-like  delicacy  and 
reserve  which  appear  in  the  Neapolitan  canvas. 

"  Still  more  noticeable  is  the  contrast  between  the  garb  and 
austere  aspect  of  our  hero,  and  the  exquisite  and  effeminate  deco 
rations  of  a  personage  whose  physiognomy,  very  long  and  lean, 
differs  most  widely  from  the  oval  and  strongly  marked  face  of  the 
Admiral, —  an  aspect  noble,  clear,  and  lit  up  by  genius.  Neither 
the  hair  which  adorns  the  temples  of  the  Neapolitan  figure  with 
symmetrical  and  elegant  locks,  nor  the  whiskers  and  long  beard, 
nor  the  curls  smoothly  arranged,  were  seen,  save  in  rarest  excep 
tions,  in  the  age  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  either  in  Spain,  or  in 
Italy,  or  in  other  civilized  regions  of  Europe ;  much  less  up  to  the 
first  years  of  Charles  Y.,  could  any  one  meet  with  a  slashed  Ger 
man  red  cap  with  plume  and  gold  studs.  The  same  may  be  said 
concerning  other  parts  of  the  attire, —  as  the  silk  sleeves  hooped 
by  fillets,  lace  about  the  hands,  gloves,  a  finger  ring,  and  other 
refinements  which  characterize  a  finished  gallant  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  medal  which  adorns  the  cap  in  the  Nea 
politan  picture  is  stamped  with  a  ship  steering  out  beyond  the 
pillars  of  Hercules.  Admit  that  it  does,  may  it  not  be  no  more 
than  one  of  these  devices  then  so  much  in  vogue,  and  concerning 
which  Giovio,  Euscelli,  Cappacio,  and  other  ingenious  Italians 
wrote  so  many  volumes?  The  vice-king  of  Catalonia  bore  as  a 
device  the  sea-compass;  Isabel  of  Corregio,  had  for  hers  two 
anchors  in  the  sea.  Stephen  Colonna  had  two  columns  painted  in 
the  deep  sea  with  a  band  connecting  them,  and  inscribed  His 
suffulta!  We  could  cite  a  hundred  examples  of  picture  restorers 
destroying  accessories  and  legends,  as  well  as  cleansing  and 
retouching  audaciously,  and  for  the  worse.  Who  can  satisfy  us 
that  the  Neapolitan  portrait  has  not  suffered  a  similar  degra 
dation  ?" 

On  the  whole,  Carderera  decides  that  Parmigiano's  painting  had 
no  reference  to  Columbus ;  but  was  more  probably  a  likeness  of 
one  Griberto  de  Sassuolo.  It  may  be  added,  that  when  Parmigiano 


10  WISCONSIN  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

had  painted  a  Venus,  and  then  received  a  commission  for  a  Virgin 
Mary,  he  passed  off  his  queen  of  beauty,  with  some  trifling 
changes  for  the  queen  of  saints.  Nor  were  Venus  and  the  Virgin 
more  unlike  each  other  than  was  a  finical  courtier  to  any  fair  set 
ting  forth  of  Columbus. 

Equally  untrustworthy  has  one  portrait  owned  by  the  Duke  of 
Veragua,  a  descendant  of  the  great  Admiral,  now  been  proved. 
Regarding  this  work,  an  eminent  Spanish  artist  says :  "  Its  date 
cannot  be  earlier  than  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  ;  it  has 
whiskers  and  ruffles  which  were  unknown  for  more  than  one  gen 
eration  after  Columbus.  Nothing  more  than  a  copy  of  this  modern 
fancy  is  to  be  seen  in  the  archives  of  the  Indies  at  Seville,  or  in 
the  grand  engraving  published  by  Munoz."  A  copy  of  the  Ve 
ragua  portrait  was  presented  in  1818  to  the  Pennsylvania  Academy 
of  Arts,  by  R.  W.  Meade.  In  the  light  of  subsequent  criticism, 
it  turns  out  a  less  valuable  benefaction  than  was  supposed  alike 
by  the  donor  and  by  the  receivers. 

No  less  unsatisfactory  is  the  bust  in  possession  of  the  New 
York  Historical  Society.  It  is  a  fac  simile  of  an  ideal  in  the  Pro- 
tomoteca  of  the  Capitoline  Museum  at  Rome.  There  was  one 
picture  brought  out  at  Frankfort,  in  1595,  with  two  warts  on  the 
left  cheek  and  a  full  bottomed  wig,  by  Theodore  Bry,  a  German 
engraver,  who  called  it  Columbus,  and  claimed  that  its  original 
had  been  executed  by  order  of  the  Spanish  monarchs,  when 
Columbus  was  about  starting  on  his  first  voyage.  At  that  early 
period,  however,  those  sovereigns  were  so  far  from  caring  for  his 
portrait,  that  they  shipped  him  off  beyond  the  sea  to  get  rid  of 
his  presence,  which  was  as  vexatious  to  them  as  the  importunate 
widow  to  the  unjust  judge.  Besides,  in  this  painting  the  physi 
ognomy  is  totally  unlike  the  delineations  by  the  discoverer's 
intimates.  The  nose  was  flat  and  snub  —  not  aquilina  This 
mercantile  speculation,  for  it  was  nothing  else,  is  a  Dutch  face,  and 
looks  as  if  a  Dutchman  made  it.  It  is  inscribed  Indiarum  primus 
inventor.  Its  pretensions  have  been  exploded  by  Navarrete.1 

In  looking  at  this  Dutch  imposture,  I  am  reminded  of  the 
tourist,  who,  when  the  skull  of  St.  Peter  was  exhibited  in  Rome, 

1  flarrisse,  Notes,  p.  163.    Memorias,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  18,  Boletin  I,  3,  245. 


PORTRAITS  OP  COLUMBUS.  11 

cried  out  — "  I  saw  another  skull  of  Peter  on  my  way  hither." 
"  No  doubt  you  did,"  said  the  relic  shower,  but  what  you  saw  was 
the  cranium  of  Peter,  the  fisher  boy ;  what  I  hold  up  is  the  head 
of  Peter  the  full  grown  apostle ! "  In  any  view  of  the  matter, 
what  was  the  Dutch  Columbus  who  had  not  yet  embarked,  to  him 
who  had  crossed  and  re-crossed  the  mighty  deep,  bearing  Christ 
to  the  Indies,  and  the  Indies  to  Christendom.  But  critics  are  now 
agreed  that  there  is  no  likelihood  that  any  portrait  whatever  of 
the  great  discoverer  was  painted  before  his  great  discovery. 

In  1821,  Peschiera,  commissioned  by  the  city  of  Genoa  to  carve 
a  bust  which  was  to  stand  on  a  shrine  inclosing  various  autograph 
papers  of  Columbus,  according  to  Irving,  discarded  all  portraits 
known  to  him,  and  drew  his  ideal  from  ancient  descriptions  of  the 
great  Admiral.  His  effort  gave  no  permanent  satisfaction.  His 
handiwork  was  ere  long  supplanted  by  a  second  bust,  and  that  in 
a  few  years  by  a  third.  This  three-headed  Columbus  deserves 
the  name  of  Cerberus —  at  least  a  consecutive,  if  not  a  simultane 
ous,  Cerberus. 

Disgusted  with  counterfeit  presentments  of  Columbus,  which 
were  counterfeits  indeed,  the  authorities  of  Genoa  wishing  to 
erect  a  worthy  monument  of  its  greatest  son,1  sought  all  through 
the  world  for  his  most  authentic  likeness  in  order  to  show  forth  at 
the  entry  of  its  gates,  and  in  its  chief  place  of  concourse,  the  man 
himself,  and  not  a  mockery  of  him.  The  results  of  this  research 
are  worth  our  noting,  and  the  more  as  they  have  not  yet  appeared 
in  English.  After  long  deliberation  the  Madrid  Historical  Society 
advised  the  Genoese  to  model  their  statue  not  according  to  any 
likeness  in  Spain,  as  national  pride  might  have  dictated,  but  by 
the  Florentine  painting  from  which  Jefferson's  copy  was  made,  as 
well  as  according  to  an  ancient  wood  cut,  and  an  engraving,  which 
had  been  early  derived  from  the  same  source  with  that  painting.3 

What  was  that  source  ?  It  was  the  Museum  of  Paolo  Giovio, 
on  the  site  of  Pliny's  villa,  by  the  lake  of  Como.  About  the 

^arderera,  Preface,  Boletin,  Vol.  1,  p.  244. 

2Boletin  1,253.  No  vacilamos  en  presentar  el  retrato  de  Florencia,  y  el 
grabado  de  Capriolo,  como  los  tipos  que  pueden  suministrar  mas  datos  para 
reproducir  la  imagen  del  insigne  Genoves.  Carderera  p.  11. 


12  WISCONSIN  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Cristofano  dell'Altissimo  was 
despatched  to  this  museuna  by  the  Duke  of  Tuscany  to  copy 
portraits.  Yasari1  relates  that  before  1568  he  had  completed  more 
than  two  hundred  and  eighty 2  of  them,  and  that  they  were  then  ar 
ranged  in  the  Florentine  Museum.  They  hang  there  to  this  day. 
Columbus  is  No.  397.  But  whether  the  face  of  Columbus  was 
among  those  painted  by  Cristofano  cannot  be  proved  from  Bonn's 
edition  of  Yasari,  nor  by  any  edition  in  any  language  in  the  Bos 
ton  Atheneum  or  Public  Library,  for  I  have  had  them  both 
searched.  But  all  the  names  are  chronicled  in  the  Guinti  edi 
tion,  and  perhaps  in  that  alone. 

Despairing  for  a  while  of  discovering  the  Oiunti  edition  of 
Yasari  which,  half  a  century  ago,  was  set  down  in  Brunet's  Bibli 
ography  as  "  rare  and  much  sought  for  ;  "  and  so  of  securing  the 
testimony  of  the  only  competent  and  credible  witness  known  to 
me  regarding  the  origin  of  the  Florentine  Columbus,  I  was  all 
the  more  delighted  to  gain  the  information  I  desired  from  Profes 
sor  Norton,  of  Harvard  University,  who  wrote  me  as  follows : 

"  I  am  glad  to  say  that  I  happen  to  have  the  Giunti  edition  of 
Yasari.  The  list  of  portraits  in  the  Museo  of  the  Duke  Cosimo 
occupies  three  pages  and  part  of  a  fourth.  It  begins  with  Con- 
dottieri,  who  are  followed  by  kings  and  emperors,  these  by  em 
perors  of  the  Turks,  and  other  heroes  ;  these  by  "  heroic  men,"  of 
whom  the  first  eight  are  : 

1.  Alberto  Duro. 

2.  Leonardo  da  Vinci. 

3.  Titiano. 

4.  Michael  Angelo  Buonarroti. 

5.  Amerigo  Yespucci. 

6.  Colombo  Genovese* 

7.  Ferdinando  Magellane. 

8.  Ferdinando  Cortese. 

1  Lives  of  Painters,  vol.  V.,  p.  478. 

2  In  some  editions  the  number  is  set  down  as  two  hundred  and  fifty. 
'The  name  Colombo  Genovese  has  been  at  last  discovered  by  Judge  Daly  in 

one  other  edition  of  Vasari,  namely,  the  Bologna  of  1647.  He  describes  it  as 
hid  away  in  a  corner,  that  is  "  in  the  appendix  to  rol.  III.,  signature  F.  f.  f., 
third  sbeet  back."  —  Ms.  letter  of  Judge  Daly. 


PORTRAITS  OF  COLUMBUS.  13 

The  Florentine  Columbus  then,  is  not  an  original,  though  Mr. 
Jefferson,  as  was  not  surprising  in  his  day,  had  fallen  into  the 
mistaken  idea  that  it  was.  He  says  :  "  The  Columbus  was  taken 
for  me  from  the  original,  which  is  in  the  gallery  of  Florence.  I 
say  from  an  original,  because  it  is  well  known  that  in  collections 
of  any  note,  and  that  of  Florence  is  the  first  in  the  world,  no  copy 
is  ever  admitted,  and  an  original  existing  in  Genoa  would  readily 
be  obtained  for  a  royal  collection  in  Florence.1  Yasari  names 
this  portrait,  but  does  not  say  by  whom  it  was  made."  The 
Florentine  Columbus  cannot  have  been  painted  later  than  1568, 
when  Va^sari's  notice  of  it  was  printed.  It  may  be  a  score  of 
year*  "older  than  that  date.  It  must  be,  if  Columbus  was  among 
the  first  portraits  copied  by  Cristofano.  Though  not  an  original, 
it  is  older  than  any  other  likeness  can  be  proved,  and  probably 
older  than  any  other  one  claims  to  be.  Its  painter  was  sent  to 
copy  in  the  Giovian  Museum,  because  there  was  the  best  por 
trait  gallery  in  existence.  Giovio  had  long  lavished  labor  and 
lucre  alike  in  forming  it.2 

Before  1546,  the  Giovian  Museum  had  become  so  famous  that 
it  drew  things  of  like  nature  to  itself.  In  that  year,  Giulio  Ko- 
mano  bequeathed  to  it  a  collection  of  portraits  which  Raphael 
had  had  made  from  stanzas  in  the  Vatican.3  Among  these  were 
Charles  VII,  King  of  France ;  Antonio  Colonna,  Prince  of  Sa 
lerno ;  Niccolo  Fortebraccio ;  Francesco  Carmignuola;  Cardinal 
Bessarion ;  Francesco  Spinola,  and  Battista  da  Canneto.  As  the 
place  where  works  of  art  would  be  most  carefully  preserved,  best 
shown,  and  most  appreciated,  that  repository  might  well  be  con 
sidered  the  niche  which  such  treasures  were  ordained  to  fill. 
Accordingly  it  is  not  incredible,  that  if  any  art  collector  left  no 
legacy  to  the  Giovian  reservoir,  his  neglect  was  judged  to  be  such 
a  proof  of  insanity  as  to  warrant  breaking  his  will. 

Ticozzi  has  published  eight  volumes,  and  Bottari  various  no 
tices,  evincing  Giovio's  pains  to  secure  authentic  portraits.  His 
letters  to  Duke  Cosmo,  to  Doni,  to  Aretino,  Titian  and  others, 

1  Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  VI.,  p.  375. 

2  Carderera,  p.  11. 
«Vasari,Vol.  II,  p.  17. 


14  WISCONSIN  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

show  solicitude  lest  some  likenesses  were  not  faithful  or  worthy 
of  faith.1  Eegarding  the  authenticity  and  accuracy  of  his  Colum 
bus,  he  seems  to  have  had  no  misgivings.  Concerning  that  hero, 
his  first  words  are  h unc  honestissima  fronte  Tiominem  "  —  this  man 
with  honor  so  legible  on  his  face.  Giovio's  residence  was  not  far 
from  his  contemporary  Giustiniani,  whose  biographical  notice  of 
Columbus  antedates  all  others  which  have  thus  far  come  to  light, 
and  who  may  have  guided  Giovio  to  a  picture  of  the  discoverer. 
At  the  death  of  Columbus,  Giovio  was  twenty-three  years  old. 
He  was  one  of  the  foremost  to  recognize  the  grandeur  of  the 
Columbian  revelation,  and  he  wrote  :2  "It  seems  that  Columbus 
is  worthy  to  be  honored  by  the  Genoese  with  a  most  splendid 
statue  "  —  Sic  ut  Columbus  videri  possit'qui  a  Liguribus  luculentis- 
sima  stalua  decoretur. 

While  holding  this  view,  and  so  careful  regarding  the  accuracy 
of  other  likenesses,  was  he  negligent  regarding  Columbus  ?  His 
museum  was  situated  in  a  Spanish  province;  his  agents  were 
abroad  in  Spain,  perhaps  so  early,  that  if  no  portrait  existed,  they 
could  have  had  one  executed.  Besides  how  unlikely,  when  other 
honors  were  showered  upon  Columbus,  and  Giovio  counted  him 
worthy  of  the  best  possible  statue,  that  no  one  was  found  to 
sketch  his  features,  above  all  since  he  survived  till  painters  from 
his  native  Italy  were  common  in.  Spain.  Chief  Justice  Daly  has 
furnished  me  the  names  of  no  less  than  sixteen  artists  in  that 
peninsula  contemporary  with  Columbus,  and  any  one  of  whom 
might  have  painted  him.  Those  names  are  as  follows :  Juan 
Sanchez  de  Castro,  founder  of  the  Seville  school,  who  survived 
Columbus  ten  years ;  Pedro  Sanchez,  Juan  Nunez,  Gonzalo  Diaz, 
Nicholas  Francisco  Pisan,  George  Ingles,  Frutos  Fiores,  Juan 
Flamenco,  Francisco  de  Amberes,  Juan  de  Flandres,  Juan  de 
Borgona,  Antonio  del  Rincon,  Peres  de  Yelloldo,  Garcia  del 
Barcia,  Juan  Rodriguez,  and  perhaps  Pedro  del  Berragueto. 

One  of  the  portraits  painted  from  life  secured  by  Giovio,  in  the 
judgment  of  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle,3  was  that  of  Mohammed  II., 

•  .  .    i 

1  Carderera,  p.  17. 

8  In  Christopher!  Columbi  elogio. 

5  History  of  Painting  in  North  Italy,  Vol.  I,  p.  125. 


POETBAITS   OF   COLUMBUS.  15 

by  Gentile  Bellini.  Who  will  believe  that  Giovio  was  more 
anxious  to  obtain  a  truthful  presentment  of  a  Turk  than  of  a 
countryman,  of  the  conqueror  of  an  old  city  than  of  the  discov 
erer  of  the  New  World  ?  whom  he  himself  styled  "  Stupendi 
alterius  et  nulli  ante  saeculo  cognita  terrarum  orbis  repertor,  incom- 
pardbilis  Liguribus  honos,  factus  mortalium  celeberrimus"  etc. 

The  wood  cut,  which  has  been  already  alluded  to,  was  published 
at  Basel,  in  1578,  to  illustrate  a  eulogy  on  Columbus  that  had 
been  written  by  Giovio.  According  to  its  editor,  Perna,  that 
wood  cut  was  derived  from  a  portrait  in  the  Giovian  Museum, 
which  had  been  painted  from  life.  His  words  are  these:  "I  have 
at  much  expense  employed  an  eminent  artist  to  engrave  the 
Giovian  portraits  painted  from  life  "  —  and,  so  far  as  appears,  no 
others  than  those  painted  from  life.  His  language  as  quoted  by 
Carderera  is:  Ho  mandado  dibujar  con  mucho  dispendio  a  un  sobre- 
saliente  artista  los  retratos  pintados  al  vivo  (ad  vivum),  que  decora- 
ban  el  Museo  de  Giovio.1  An  ancient  engraving  in  the  great 
library  of  Paris  is  inscribed :  4<  From  a  portrait  painted  from 
nature  (peint  sur  nature)?  in  the  Museum  of  Giovio,  and  no  other 
specimen  in  the  vast  collection  makes  that  claim.  The  wood  cuts 
of  some  other  notables  in  Giovio's  book  being  known  to  be  cor 
rect,  it  is  a  natural  inference  that  that  which  represents  Columbus 
is  likewise  worthy  of  credit. 

It  is  also  asserted  by  Spanish  critics,  that  a  family  likeness  to 
the  Giovian  type  as  shown  in  the  Florentine  copy,  and  in  the 
wood  cut,  is  clear  in  most  old  and  famous  likenesses,  as  in  the 
Belvedere  at  Vienna,  the  Borghese  at  Eome,  the  Cancellieri  from 
Cuccaro,  the  Altamira,  the  Malpica,  the  Naval  Museum,3  the  Villa 
Franca,  and  the  Yanez  in  Spain.4  From  the  last  of  these,  bought 
from  Yanez  of  Granada,  in  1763,  by  the  Government,  and  now 
hanging  in  the  National  Library,  your  present  was  painted. 

1  Carderera,  p.  15.    The  Baqel  edition  in  the  Library  of  Congress  hears  a 
date  three  years  earlier  than  that  given  by  Carderera,  namely,  1575. 

2  Lareusse. 

1  Carderera,  p.  11,  note. 

4  Carderera,  pp.  18  and  24.  The  projecting  lower  lip  and  curved  nose  of 
the  present  Duke  of  Veragua,  a  lineal  descendant  of  Columbus,  resembles 
the  Giovian  prototypes. 


16  WISCONSIN  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

The  engraving  where  Columbus  holds  an  octant  in  his  hand, 
was  first  published  at  Cologne,  in  1598,  by  Crispin  de  Pas 
[Pasaeus].  When  critically  examined,  it  also  turns  out  to  be 
nothing  but  a  free  imitation  of  the  Griovian  wood  cut,  which  came 
out  in  Basel  twenty  years  before.1 

The  portraitures  I  have  last  passed  in  review  are  the  more  re 
liable,  because  they  show  the  person  of  Columbus  as  we  have  it 
described  by  his  own  son,  as  well  as  by  his  contemporary,  Oviedo  ; 
that  is,  face  large  and  ruddy,  cheek  bones  rather  high,  nose  aqui 
line,  eyes  light,  hair  blonde  in  youth,  but  at  thirty  years  old 
already  white.3  It  would  seem,  however,  from  all  his  pictures, 
that  he  must  have  dyed  his  hair, —  or  artists  of  old,  as  now,  may 
have  loved  to  show  a  man  still  at  his  best  and  fullest. 

In  the  list  of  Giovian  portraits  copied  by  Cristofano,  Colum 
bus  stands  between  Americus  and  Magellan.  He  who  disputes 
the  authenticity  of  Columbus,  must  push  his  skepticism 
further,  unless  the  features  of  Americus  and  Magellan  are  con 
firmed  by  other  evidence.  If  they  are,  they  heighten  the  cer 
tainty  that  the  Columbian  likeness  is  likewise  truthful.  The 
Swiss  wood  cut  of  1578,  antedates  all  others ;  yet  it  is  by  no 
means  in  good  preservation.  Accordingly,  the  Roman  drawing 
by  Capriolo,  published  in  1596,  with  another  from  Cucarro,  and 
the  painting  in  Florence, —  the  original  of  yours,  as  many  critics 
say, —  were  recommended  by  Spain  to  the  Genoese  as  the  best 
models  in  form  and  features  of  the  countryman  whom  they  most 
delighted  to  honor. 

Thanks  to  these  archetypes,  some  what  idealized  it  may  be,  his 
native  city,  in  1862,  completed  a  monument  to  Columbus,  de 
signed  by  Canzio,3  which  puts  to  shame  our  ridiculous  figure  by 
the.  Neapolitan  Persico,  perched  on  the  capitol  steps  at  Washing 
ton,  in  1344,  where  he  who  gave  us  our  Continent  is  clad  in  a  sort 
of  mail  not  invented  at  his  era,  and  standing  with  the  globe  poised 

1  Carderera,  p.  18. 

2  Carderera,  p.  7.    La  cara  larga,  las  megillas  un  poco  altas,  la  nariz  agul- 
lena,  los  ojos  blancos  [garzos  Herrera]  y  il  color  encendido,  etc. 

3  A  picture  of  this  grand  Genoese  tribute  to  Columbus  maybe  found  in 
flenry  Harrisse's  Notes  on  Columbus,  p.  182. 


PORTE  AITS  OP  COLUMBUS.  17 

in  his  hand  like  a  nine-pin  ball,  seems  ready  to  bowl  it  through 
an  alley. 

The  grand  Genoese  statue  of  Columbus  represents  him  lean 
ing  on  an  anchor,  and  America  sitting  at  his  feet.  Not  far  off 
there  is  an  inlaid  tablet  inscribed  : 

Dissi,  volli,  crecii!    Ecco  un  secondo  tUar^-.-j:*.  i  •• 

«  ,  TI,     ,    .  ,    mmLTor  L  Ljnnirv 

Sorger  nuovo  dall  onde  ignote  mondo. 

"  His  wish,  his  faith,  his  word ;  from  unknown  surges. 
Behold  a  second  world,  new  found  emerges !  " 

The  crowning  statue  on  the  Genoese  monument  was  first  or 
dered  from  the  sculptor  Bartolotti,  or  Bartolini,  who  shortly  after 
died.  It  was  then  given  to  Freccia,  who  had  but  just  finished  a 
rough  model  when  he  became  a  maniac  and  died.  From  his 
model,  however,  it  was  finished  by  Franzone  and  Svanascini.  ol 
Carrara.  A  good  authority  also  assured  me,  that  "  for  the  features 
they  relied  upon  a  drawing  made  from  a  portrait  hanging  in  the 
palace  of  the  Dake  of  Yeragua  at  Madrid,  a  descendant  of  Colum 
bus.  The  Duke  had  the  drawing  made,  and  sent  it  to  Genoa  for 
that  purpose." 

This  statement  was  made  in  a  private  letter  from  John  F.  Ha- 
zelton,  United  States  consul  at  Genoa.  I  wish  it  were  correct,  for 
the  principal  portraits  in  the  possession  of  the  Duke  of  Yeragua 
are  first,  one  painted  from  the  Cucarro1  likeness,  which  is  a  de 
scendant  from  the  Giovian  portrait  through  the  Capriolo  engrav 
ing ;  and  secondly,2  a  copy  from  the  likeness  in  the  National  Li 
brary  (Biblioteca  Nacional),  the  identical  Yanez  from  which  our 
copy  was  obtained.  The  Consul  was,  however,  misinformed.  A. 
letter  from  the  Duke  of  Yeragua  himself  assures  me,  that  the 
Genoese,  when  building  their  Columbian  monument,  did  not  con 
sult  with  him  at  all.  The  Duke's  words  are  :  Los  artistos  de  Gen 
eva  no  me  conmltaron  quando  se  constrvjo  el  monumento  a  quelle  se 
refiere. 

Though  so  many  Columbian  portraits  point  to  Giovio's  Muse 
um  as  their  mother,  and  bear  a  family  likenes?,  as  in  scale,  atti 
tude  and  material,  and  the  eyes  in  all  look  to  the  right,  they  dif- 

1  Carderera,  p.  23. 

1  Ms.  letter  from  Duke  of  Yeragua,  January  25, 1883. 

a 


18  WISCONSIN  STATE  HISTOEICAL  SOCIETY. 

fer  in  accessories,  especially  in  costume  and  hair,  as  well  as  in  ex 
pression,  ranging  from  sad  to  cheerful.  The  wood-cut  and  the 
Florentine  copy  are  so  divergent  in  dress,  though  the  features  are 
alike,  that  recent  critics  hold  that  Griovio  had  two  Columbian  like 
nesses.  The  costume  in  the  wood-cut  corresponds  to  what  the 
curate  of  Palacios,1  Andrea  Bernaldez,  saw  Columbus  wearing 
in  June,  1496,  namely,  a  dress  in  color  and  fashion  like  a  Fran 
ciscan  friar's,  but  shorter,  and  for  devotion,  girt  with  the  rope  of  a 
cordelier. 

The  costume,  in  your  gift,  strikes  men  now  exactly  as  the 
actual  garb  of  Columbus  struck  the  Spanish  curate.  Wbileyour 
Columbus  was  being  framed  here  in  Madison,  every  person  who 
came  into  the  shop  said  to  the  workman,  "  What  Catholic  priest 
have  you  here  ? "  In  the  era  of  Columbus  it  was  a  popular 
faith  that  no  one  was  sure  of  salvation  unless  he  died  in  a  relig 
ious  dress.  The  religiosity  of  Columbus  was  as  great  as  that  of 

any  man  — 

"  Who  to  be  sure  of  Paradise 

Dying  put  on  the  weeds  of  Dominic, 

Or  in  Franciscan  thought  to  pass  disguised. ' 

He  was,  in  fact,  buried  at  Valladolid  in  the  monastery  of  St. 
Francis,  and  that  in  the  habit  of  a  Franciscan  friar.2  But  as  a 
sailor's  garments  were  then  like  a  Franciscan's,  some  hold  that 
Columbus  chose  to  be  so  painted  with  allusion  to  what  he  had 
himself  achieved  as  a  sailor.  What  costume  so  befitting  the  great 
admiral  as  that  in  which,  as  is  most  probable,  he  really  stood  on 
his  forecastle  during  the  night,  when  he  united  forever  the  two 
hemispheres  hitherto  always  disjoined  ? 

The  genuineness  of  the  Giovian  portrait  is  argued  from  its 
dress  being  similar  to  the  Franciscan  friar's  frock.  A  portrait  in 
such  a  costume,  it  is  maintained,  would  never  have  been  admit 
ted  among  those  of  Americus,  Magellan  and  Cortez,  with  other 
military  heroes,  unless  known  to  be  either  original  or  copied  from 

1  Vino  el  Almirante  en  Castilla  en  el  mes  de  junio  de  1496,  vestido  de  unas 
ropas  de  color  de  habito  de  San  Francisco  de  Observancia,  en  la  hachura 
poco  menos  que  habito,  y  con  cordon  de  San  Francisco  por  devocion.  Car- 
derera,  p.  19. 

8  Carderera,  p.  19. 


PORTRAITS  OF  COLUMBUS.  19 

one  indubitably  drawn  from  life.  The  dress  also  points  to  a 
Spanish  origin,  because  Italian  artists  already  insisted  on  tricking 
out  their  personages  —  even  contemporaries  —  in  the  robes  of 
Ancient  Romans,  as  Malone  improved  the  bust  on  Shakspeare's 
tomb  by  whitewashing  it  all  over. 

One  point  in  the  Columbian  investigation,  namely  —  what  has 
become  of  the  one  or  more  most  ancient  portraits  which  adorned 
the  Museum  of  Giovio,  has  been  strangely  neglected.  One  in 
vestigator,  however,  Carderera,  states  that  the  collection  was  di 
vided  between  the  families  of  two  Giovian  counts,  the  descend 
ants  of  whom  are  still  residing  in  the  city  of  Como.  Something 
of  it  remained  in  1780,  when  a  letter  from  Giambattista  Giovio 
to  Tiraboschi  described  its  relics,  which,  according  to  Crowe  and 
Cavaleaselle,1  continued  undispersed  to  the  very  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  It  is  possible,  then,  that  research  about  Como 
may  be  rewarded  by  the  discovery  of  a  Columbian  likeness  which 
shall  become  as  famous  in  its  line  as  the  Vatican  Codex  is  among 
Biblical  manuscripts. —  yes,  as  pre-eminent  as  that  Codex  would 
stand  if  the  Alexandrian  and  Sinaitic  codices  had  never  existed. 

IQ  1763,  a  portrait  of  Columbus,  with  those  of  Cortez,  Lope 
and  Quevedo,  was  purchased  from  N.  Yanez,2  who  had  brought 
it  from  Granada,  by  the  Spanish  Government.  No  trace  of  any 
such  picture  having  been  at  an  earlier  period  in  the  Royal  Pic 
ture  Gallery  has  been  detected.  So  long  was  the  revealer  of  the 
Western  Hemisphere  unappreciated  in  Castile  and  Leon.  This 
Yanez  likeness  was  hung  in  the  National  Library  [Biblioteca  Na- 
cional]  and  soon  confessed  by  art  critics  to  resemble  closely  in 
features  that  in  the  Florentine  Uffizi  —  the  oldest  of  known  date, 
and  that  from  which  Jefferson's  copy  had  been  taken.  It  was 
highly  praised  by  Navarrete,3  in  his  grand  work,  which  is  a  nobler 
monument  to  Columbus  than  the  labor  of  an  age  in  piled  stones. 

But  Spanish  artists  were  long  ago  satisfied,  that  the  Yanez  por 
trait  had  been  tampered  with  by  some  audacious  restorer,  and 
they  at  length  obtained  permission  to  test  it  with  chemicals.4 

2  History  of  Painting  in  North  Italy,  Vol.  I,  p.  )26.    London,  1871. 

"Boletinl.    No.  3,  p.  267. 

4  Same,  p.  253. 

*  Boletin,  vol.  1,  No.  4,  p.  327. 


£0  WISCONSIN  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

From  side  to  side  of  the  upper  margin  of  the  picture  there  ra.n 
the  legend  CHRISTOF.  COLUMBUS  NORI  (sic)  ORBIS  INVENTOR. 
These  words  were  first  subjected  to  the  artist's  test,  and  as  they 
vanished,  quite  another  inssription  came  out  beneath  them, 
namely,  the  words  COLOMB.  LYGUR.  NOVI  ORBIS  REPTOR  (sic). 
The  variations  not  only  proved  that  the  likeness  [had  been  re 
painted,  but  that  the  second  painter  was  inferior  to  the  first,  since 
repertor  means  to  find  by  seeking,  which  inventor  does  not.  The 
testers  had  no  hesitation  about  proceeding  further.  The  flowing 
robe  with  a  heavy  far  collar,  as  they  said,  "  more  befitting  a  Mus 
covite  than  a  mariner,"  vanished,  while  a  simple  garb,  only  a 
closely  fitting  tunic,  and  a  mantle  folded  across  the  breast,  rose  to 
view.  The  eyes,  nose,  lower  lip,  facial  oval,  all  assumed  a  new 
expression.  The  air  of  monastic  sadness  vanished. 

Senor  Cubells  and  his  assistants,  who  had  begun  their  work 
nervously,  finished  it  with  glad  surprise  when  they  beheld  the 
great  discoverer  throwing  off  the  disguises  that  had  been  thrust 
upon  him ;  and,  as  it  were,  emancipated  from  the  chains  with 
which  he  was  bound  in  his  lifetime,  and  which  were  buried  in 
his  coffin. 

"  As  if  he  whom  the  asp 

In  its  marble  grasp, 
Kept  close  and  for  ages  strangled, 

Got  loose  from  the  hold 

Of  each  serpent  fold, 
And  exulted  disentangled." 

A  copy  of  this  resuscitated  Columbus  was  painted  for  you,  and 
it  forms  the  present  which  you  bestow  on  the  Historical  Society 
of  Wisconsin. 

Carderera,  the  great  Spanish  authority  on  Columbian  portraits, 
regrets  that  while  sojourning  at  the  lake  of  Como,  he  had  neg 
lected  to  search  in  all  highways  and  byways  for  the  likeness  that 
stood  in  the  Museum  of  Giovio  there,  and  which  may  be  still 
lurking  in  some  unsuspected  corner.  Friends  of  mine,  now  trav 
eling  abroad,  have  promised  to  spend  time  and  money  in  making 
such  research. 

But  some  Spanish  investigators  hold  that  labors  in  this  direc 
tion  are  needless.  Signor  Bios  y  Rios,  in  a  recent  Bulletin  of 


PORTRAITS  OF  COLUMBUS.  21 

the  Madrid  Academy,1  maintains  that  the  long-lost  and  much  de 
siderated  Griovian  portrait  —  the  prototype  of  which  all  Colum 
bian  likenesses  of  any  value  are  copies,  has  been  found  already. 
He  holds  that  the  Yanez  portrait  is  nothing  less  than  that  Giovian 
jewel.  He  adduces  many  circumstances  which  serve  to  thicken 
other  proofs  of  his  position  that  do  demonstrate  thinly.  Let  us 
trust  that  this  discovery  of  the  great  discoverer,  which  was  as 
unlocked  for  as  his  own  discovery  of  America,  may  prove  as  un- 
dubitable. 

In  the  Yellowstone  National  Park  there  are  springs  strongly 
impregnated  with  mineral  matter.  In  one  of  these,  if  a  man  be 
immersed,  as  we  dip  a  wick  to  make  a  tallow  candle,  he  soon  be 
comes  marble  all  over,  through  and  through, —  in  a  word,  his  own 
statue.  It  has  >been  suggested  that  this  wonderful  spring  should 
be  utilized  as  an  economical  mode  of  immortalizing  members  of 
Congress,  and  procuring  statues  of  undisputable  accuracy  for 
filling  the  temple  of  glory  which  has  been  opened  in  Washing 
ton.  Oar  superabundance  of  statesmen  would  thus  be  reduced, 
as  many  a  celebrity  might  he -led  to  speedy  suicide,  in  order  to  be 
seen  by  posterity  still  at  his  best  and  fullest. 

However  this  may  be,  it  cannot  be  sufficiently  regretted  that 
these  wonder-working  waters  were  not  discovered  by  the  discov 
erer  of  America.  In  that  case  we  might  have  had  his  own  form 
and  features  eternized  in  a  prototype — yes,  an  autotype  beyond 
all  question  or  cavil ;  and,  best  of  all,  one  that  would  never  need 
to  be  whitewashed,  at  least  not  in  the  Washington  sense  of  the 
term. 

Certain  New  York  spiritualists,  having  secured  the  aid  of 
Leonardo  da  Yinci,  profess  to  have  just  supplied  the  world  with 
the  first  authentic  likeness  of  Confucius.  It  may  be  they  will 
produce  a  Columbus  with  claims  to  accuracy  which  will  rival 
what  you  bring  us.  But  outside  the  gallery  of  spirit-art  you 
need  fear  no  rivalry. 

Our  special  thanks  are  due  to  you,  sir,  for  this  genuine  like 
ness,  because  so  many  counterfeits  are  abroad.  We  thank  you 

1  Boletin,  I.,  3,  253. 


22  WISCONSIN  STATE  HISTOEICAL  SOCIETY. 

the  more  because  it  is  still  disputed,  and  perhaps  doubtful,  where 
the  ashes  of  our  great  voyager  now  repose.1  It  is  claimed  in 
Cuba,  that  those  remains  were  transported  to  that  island  in  1796; 
but  San  Domingans  assert  that  they  then,  with  pious  fraud,  deliv 
ered  up  only  sham  relics,  while  retaining  and  secreting  the  verita 
ble  treasure.  Be  this  as  it  may,  and  though  every  bone  of  Col 
umbus  shall  turn  to  dust,  till  the  world  can  boast  no  hair  of  him 
for  memory,  thanks  to  Giovio  and  his  artists,  his  face,  his  form,  his 
habit  as  he  lived,  triumph  over  death,  and,  enshrined  in  our  His 
toric  Hall,  thanks  to  you,  they  shall  become  as  familiar  as  house 
hold  words  to  the  people  of  this  Commonwealth,  where  you  have 
served  as  Chief  Magistrate  longer  than  any  other  man.  In  the 
new  and  noble  Gallery  now  in  preparation  for  our  pictures,  your 
benefaction  shall  close  the  grandest  vista.  ESTO  ^ERPETUA  ! 

NOTE. —  Having  begged  information  regarding  the  portrait  of  Columbus 
now  in  the  INew  York  capitol  of  Dr.  H.  A.  Homes,  the  State  librarian,  that 
gentleman  has  brought  to  my  knowledge  several  interesting  particulars 
"which  have  long  lain,  as  it  were,  buried  alive,  in  the  Appendix  to  the  Journal 
of  the  New  York  State  Senate  for  the  year  1850,  pp.  788-792.  The  substance 
of  the  details  there  given  is  as  follows : 

The  Columbian  portrait  given,  in  1784,  by  Maria  Farmer  to  the  Senate  of 
New  York,  was  accepted  with  grateful  acknowledgments.  At  that  time  the 
city  of  New  York  was  the  seat  of  the  State  government,  and  when,  in  1797, 
the  capital  was  removed  to  Albany,  this  picture  was  left  behind.  It  seems  to 
have  been  forgotten,  and  continued  neglected  or  abstracted  for  many  years. 
On  the  26th  of  March,  1827,  however,— thanks  perhaps  to  the  publication  of 
Irving's  biography —  it  was  resolved  by  the  Senate  in  Albany,  that  the  Maria 
Farmer  portrait  of  Columbus  be  removed  from  the  city  of  New  York,  and 
put  up  in  some  suitable  place  in  the  Senate  Chamber.  Accordingly,  the  clerk 
of  the  Senate  visited  the  city  of  New  York,  and,  after  considerable  search, 
discovered  in  the  garret  of  the  city  Hall,  and  identified,  the  Farmer  portrait. 
Onward  from  that  era  this  picture  has  hung  either  in  the  Senate  Chamber  or 
in  its  ante- room,  and  for  some  years  over  the  fireplace,  so  that  it  became  much 
warped  and  injured.  Hence,  in  1850,  it  was  "  restored  without  changing  the 
picture,"  by  JN  ew  York  artists,  and  came  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  princi 
pal  ornaments  of  the  Senate  Chamber. 

Leisler,  from  whom  the  Columbian  portrait  had  descended  to  Maria 
Farmer,  had  visited  Europe,  traveling  over  all  its  countries.  While  abroad, 
he  probably  procured  this  portrait,  and  that  from  some  one  of  his  kindred> 

1  Los  Restos  de  Colon,  Madrid,  1879. 


PORTEAITS   OF    COLUMBUS.  23 

if  Mari    Farmer's  statement  that  it  bad  been  in  her  family  as  early  as  1630, 
be  correct. 

The  date,  1592,  inscribed  on  the  portrait,  is  interpreted  by  the  author  of 
the  Appendix  as  by  me,  to  denote  the  year  in  which  the  picture  was  made, 
or  copied;  and  the  figures  "  Act  23 "  to  signify  the  age  at  which  Columbus 
is  represented,  and  that  at  which  he  first  went  to  sea.  In  the  background  of 
this  work  a  vessel  is  painted  just  sailing  away  from  a  small  sea  port. 


